Mesh

Glyn Barnes
I have Win 8 with Classic Shell. I have uninstalled all the apps except Skydrive and Store, 'cause they can't be removed, I just un-pinned them from the start screen.
 
Once you have got rid of that stuff  the metro screen is usable, but I still work the old way with desk-top icons and the start menu, depending on the type of program. The tiles for programs are just huge, not stupidly huge like the tiles for apps just a bit daft large. If they could be reduced in size it would be a big improvement, then with the grouping functions the start screen would start to become actually useful.
 
I decided to skip Win 7 all together and go with Win 8 as I considered it more future proof.
 
The biggest problem with windows 8 in my book is no Solitaire, Mahjongg Titans or Minesweeper

You guys are killing me....slowly....
Man, I'll tell you what, I've gone back and forth between these two (as of the last few days)...my heads starting to spin.
 
The "future proof" comment is what my original thinking was too, so I really do appreciate your input/being an actual user Glyn.
 
Have you run into any functional issues with general use in Win 8?
 
 

Mesh,
 
Not trying to to influence you any way, but maybe go to a store and have a play with it ? It looks a little odd to start with, but think of the "metro" screen as your start button (just press windows key)  and it will make sense. The search function is way better, just start typing while metro screen is up and it will automatically enter search mode and narrow down your choices  - ie will show you all files/programs that have that word in them. As others have said, the desktop is still there if you want it  and the first thing I did was make it look just like my old pc for the sake of familiar comfort. Never use it now to be honest.
 
The "charm" bar can be a little annoying on my laptop as it's easy to make it come up without wanting to, hoping that 8.1 will give the option to disable that as it's a bit unnecessary imho. The "Off" button is kind of hidden away, but I just made myself a tile on the metro screen that performs the off function (windows key, select off - job done). Something else that may make a difference for you is that you don't get office stuff buillt in any more - thank the idiots with the lawsuits for that, but if you just want something for writing the odd letter etc, there are perfectly adequate free programs for this. You can of course still buy MS Office, but they are trying to push you down the yearly subscription path now, rather than just selling you the software - effectively forcing you to buy the new version every time.
 
This might help .....
 

 

MeshHave you run into any functional issues with general use in Win 8?
 

When researching this myself, I honestly didn't find a plethora of Win 8 horror stories or anything like that as previous SW upgrades sometimes had.
 
A lot of people did have driver concerns, as there are a lot of cases where "official" Win 8 drivers haven't been released. But as I said earlier, that doesn't mean Win 7 or Vista drivers won't work perfectly fine, just that they aren't officially supported in Win 8. Some SW does have some problems with Win 8 and still needs to be updated (like DPC Latency Checker), but outside of a few ancient programs I have that I could still get working in Vista but not in Win 8 (don't know about 7), most stuff seems to work without issues.
 
But since I wanted Remote Desktop anyway, in my case I sort of hedged my bets by getting Win 8 Pro, which as I mentioned earlier also allows you to downgrade to Win 7 (if you have the 7 installation media). But if you install Classic Shell and aren't too attached to the classic versions of Solitaire and Minesweeper, I really doubt you'd want to as it's pretty much the same.

paulo

Karyn
 
The new start screen is great, if you're on a tablet.  Totaly useless on a PC with no touch screen.
 
 

Totally disgree, in what way is it difficult ?

No its not useless or difficult, but I don't like it. For starters its ugly as sin. As I alluded to in a previous post it may even have some advantages. If only the tiles were not so enormous I might even start to use it. Other than that the main thing is to un-pin or un-install any unwanted social media and e-commerce junk that installs with Win 8.(in my case all of it.)
 

paulo
You can download them for free in the store.

 
Yeah - but they are optimised for touch versions. Very ugly!
 
 

Mesh
Have you run into any functional issues with general use in Win 8?
 

No Issues here. Everything seems to work fine.

 

paulo
You can download them for free in the store.

 

Glyn Barnes 
Yeah - but they are optimised for touch versions. Very ugly!

 




  Ok, just trying to help.......

drewfx1

Wookiee
The general view seems to be stay with Win 7 unless you really need touch.
 

 
I would say the general view seems to be that many are afraid of Win 8, though it seems no one can offer any tangible reason why it should be avoided (outside of an abundance of caution).

Put it another way it has been brought to my attention that a popular patch editor and librarian software is currently beta testing in Win 7 64.  A certain manufacture of high quality audio interfaces suggested that Win 7 64 is more appropriate for audio work.
 
Just saying.

Wait for Windows 9.  Avoid every other OS release as Karyn was suggesting.

craigb
 
Wait for Windows 9.  Avoid every other OS release as Karyn was suggesting.
 

 

drewfx1
 
 
I would say the general view seems to be that many are afraid of Win 8, though it seems no one can offer any tangible reason why it should be avoided (outside of an abundance of caution).

Thanks so much Paulo & Drew for the more indepth details of Win 8.....I certainly do appreciate it...... and no, "I ain't afraid of no Win 8 ghosts" .
 
Except for the minor complaints on the UI and Metro of Win 8, I haven't found (online) any "real" dysfunction with this OS in making it a showstopper. On the contrary, after reading Noel B's blog (link in my OP) on Win 8, X2 actually performed much better on all their tests than Win 7. The Classic Shell eliminates this "ugly" UI/Metro and if the rest of the OS works as advertised, then it does give an open future to build on (touch screen etc...).  
 
I suppose we all like to know the worst side(s) of any software before we actually purchase it, and with Win 8, there doesn't seem to be any legitimate deal breakers.....  
 
 
 

WookieePut it another way it has been brought to my attention that a popular patch editor and librarian software is currently beta testing in Win 7 64.  A certain manufacture of high quality audio interfaces suggested that Win 7 64 is more appropriate for audio work.
 
Just saying.

Do they have any mention of why?
 
I'm just curious, as before I made the Win 8 jump I couldn't find much in terms of technical deal breakers. I suppose I never grew up to the point that the words, "don't do it" without a good reason why I shouldn't are effective.
 
 
Oh, and "popular patch editor and librarian software" made me smile, as I didn't know such things were "popular" anymore. Maybe there are more of us guys who still sometimes use HW than I thought.